The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2024)

At a Bookstore in India

Sir, I see that you are checking out this book by Mohsin Hamid . I read it a few days back. How did I find it you ask? Well, it was pretty interesting. I found the narration style of the author quite unique. I think that alone was reason enough to make it worth.

Oh, you are getting distracted. I see you are eyeing those shining new book covers of The Hunger Games and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. They came out after the movies were released. No, I have not seen the movies but it’s good to hear that you found them intriguing. Are you looking forward to reading the books? That’s very good. I found the books impressive but just my experience with movies inspired from books made me avoid the movies.

It’s okay that you are a casual reader. Nowadays most of us are. I see in your grip on the book and the way your eyes exuded enthusiasm when you saw the new cover, that you like to buy books.

What prompted you to find this book then? You heard it from a friend and he recommended it to you. Very wise of him/her, I must say. You see, this book is about a young Pakistani who went to the US for studies and later lived there with a very lucrative job. He detailed the events of his life like finding his first job, his first crush which later became love and the twists that happened post 9/11.

Your eyes are drifting. I think you are becoming bored. You feel this story line has been covered umpteen times in many books. I must give you something which makes this one different?

I say, it’s the simplicity of this story. The emotions displayed by the younger generation of the third world countries when they work for the very country which is making the life of their own people back home miserable. This is a new breed that has worked their brains hard, can speak English effortlessly and are starting with salaries which are much more than their father's.

Now you are able to connect with it. You are turning some pages to look if you find it interesting.Reading a full page from the middle of the book is also a good idea. What did you find so astonishing here? Yes, he had a conversation with some man who changed his heart. But let me tell you that he was not a religious fanatic.

No it won’t turn into the usual brainwashing of the literate story. Here, you will see some soft emotions. I have to admit the ending is not so interesting but I hope that won’t make the whole book useless for you.

In meeting you the pleasure was all mine. I like to talk to people about books. Many times you will find me standing alone at this or the other corner of the book store. Would you like to recommend some book to me? The next time do tell me about your favorite books.

You are buying this book. I hope you will not regret it. Let me know how you like it. :)

A real bowl of literary prawn crackers - you eat and eat and they taste of nothing, they're entirely synthetic, like a form of extruded plastic, but you can't stop and then you realise the whole bowl is gone and what was that all about? This is not a good book and yet it was compelling, I can't deny it, a smooth, snaky insinuating monologue which in retrospect and often in real-time spect is a ridiculous tissue of allegory, you've seen all this in other reviews but it's all horribly true - our reluctant hero's name is Changez - that's right

Ch-ch-ch-changez to you!

and his svelte not-quite-attainable lurve is (Am) Erica

I hope Mohsin Hamid wakes up in hot sweats in the middle of the night thinking Oh God, how could I have done that!

The fundamentalism of the title is from the business slogan of the arbitrage company he works for in New York, "focus on the fundamentals" - that's the fundamentalism he's reluctant about. Okay, nice joke.

That said, a lot of the reviews of this book would have you believe it's an apology for al Qaeda - no, it's not, Changez is an extraordinarily secular Muslim - I think the M word is used once only in the whole book, and nowhere does he speak of Islam. The opposition to America which is eventually accepted and embodied by our troubled young man is entirely political - he does give a faint but pertinent impression of America as the lover who kills you or as the murderer who loves you. But oh dear, this kind of thing is not good :

"I had always resented the manner in which America conducted itself in the world; your country's constant interference in the affairs of others was insufferable. Vietnam, Korea, the straits of Taiwan ..."

I thought there was so much more to be said about how the East wants what the West has got without wanting to be colonised and disembowelled by the West, and how America is the very embodiment of guilty pleasure, and how this love hate thing is like to drive entire countryfuls of young men raving mad, given the repressive anti-sex poverty-stricken societies they come from, and how this explains a whole lot, but Hamsid's touch was so light you could almost have mistaken it for shallowness.

Two and a half.

I've been trying to read some good Pakistani writing in English for a while now. And I'm glad I made an introduction with Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist, who earlier wrote Moth Smoke, a novel, which Rahul Bose is now adapting into a film.

Lately, there has been a flowering of young Pakistani writers like Hamid and Kamila Shamsie (Cartography, Salt And Saffron), and in many ways, this is the first literary stirring that the country is witnessing.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist looks at the increasingly volatile and precariously balanced relationship between the West (United States) and East (South Asian Muslim countries), and how without a certain sense empathy, this equation will steadily spiral downwards.

Interestingly, Hamid’s point here is that a feeling of fundamentalism can arise in the unlikeliest of people, when they feel pushed to a corner.

The novel’s protagonist, Changez is a Princeton graduate, has led a charmed life back in Pakistan and is all set for a enviable career in New York.
He bags a job with one of the premium companies of the city, Underwood Samson and in a short while, is recogonised as one of the firm’s brightest young talents.

If he thought life couldn't get better, he’s proved wrong. Soon enough, he falls in love with Erica, a rich, pretty and artistically inclined American girl. But this relationship is fraught with troubles. Though there is a great deal of affection and even curiosity between Changez and Erica about their respective backgrounds, theirs remains a largely unfulfilling bond. Erica cannot get over Chris, her boyfriend who died some years back and thereby, can never fully 'open up' (sexually too) with Changez. In a moment of frustration and even resentment, the latter asks her to imagine him as Chris and make love.

This is when you realize that Hamid’s constructed an allegory here. Erica stands for America (Erica), and symbolises the deep infactuation Changez feels for her on certain levels. His own company is called Underwood Sampsons, standing for US, a highly competitive firm with a narrow focus on its own progress.

Erica's inability to accept Changez, unless he 'becomes' Chris, quite clearly, hints at the country's unwillingness to accept the former’s identity for what it primarily is.

Till this point, Changez largely shares a love-hate equation with the US. He loves being a New Yorker, both his high-flying job and girlfriend fill his heart with a sense of pride. However, at the same time, Hamid's protagonist is no pushover. Clearly, Changez has a mind of his own and feels a deep sense of attachment to his motherland (Pakistan). The fact that bright minds like him have to desert their own country, to fill the coffers of an already overdeveloped, supercilious country, leaves him frustrated.

This realisation further dawns upon him when 9/11 occurs and Changez feels a strange sense of thrill at 'someone bringing America to its knees'. From there on, life is never the same and his disenchantment with America is complete.

Erica is afflicted with a mental illness and slowly fades away (literally) from his life. This is a period when Changez also develops a certain rebellious streak, refusing to either cut off his beard or focus on his job. News of America's attacks on Afghanistan, Pakistan's closest neighbour fills his heart with resentment and from there on, it's only a matter of time before he loses his job.
Once back in Pakistan, Changez becomes a professor at a University, 'who makes it his mission on the campus to advocate Pakistan's disengagement with America'

Though the book does not, in any way, glorify fundamentalism, it subtly points at how sparks of fundamentalism can be ignited in the most placid looking people and circ*mstances. Hamid succeeds in making his central character-Changez engaging from the word go and it helps that this book is a rather compact, slim one, without too much rambling.
But, while Hamid's attempt at constructing an allegorical narrative is interesting, it is hardly intrusive enough to lend the story any kind of depth. If anything, it slackens its dramatic pace, making it both tedious and essayist.
On the other hand, Changez's professional life has been treated with great flair and understanding.
There are great stories to be written on the increasing east-west gulf and the growing feelings of mistrust between both continents. The Reluctant Fundamentalist only skims the surface, but nevertheless Hamid does enough to prove that he's a writer to watch out for.

In one sustained monologue, a young Pakistani named Changez relates his life story to an unidentified American man in a cafe in the city of Lahore. Changez, a Princeton graduate who once worked as an analyst for a Manhattan financial firm, tells us how his optimistic view of America began to darken in the aftermath of 9/11.

I liked this book for its elegant style and outsider's viewpoint, but my favorite part of it is the mysterious relationship between the narrator and his American listener. Tension and threat bubble beneath the novel's polite surface, and the possible explanations for that tension keep the reader guessing and give the novel sublety, power and depth.

Although this book is set in Pakistan, it is not translated. The author attended Princeton and Harvard Law School, living a life like that of his protagonist, so I guess we can call this story semi-autobiographical.

The story is told by a young Pakistani man to an American man in an extended dialog while they sit in a street cafe in Lahore. The young man tells the stranger his story of attending Princeton and then getting a high-powered job as a financial analyst at a company that gathers information for impending corporate takeovers. So he was a budding ‘master of the universe.’

As the young man relates his experiences as a student at an American Ivy League college, we are reminded that the vast majority of international students in the US were not starving kids from rural villages. They were members of the elite in their home countries and already familiar with English and with western ways when they arrived. We learn of the advantages and disadvantages of students in this situation: the prejudices as well as the friendships that come from him being an ‘exotic friend.’

His family is back in Pakistan where he grew up with multiple maids and cooks and a chauffeur. It's a bit of a stretch for us to sympathize with his concern that yes, they are rich, but through the generations his ancestors have slipped down the ladder of social class in Pakistan. It's hard to sympathize as he tells us basically that they used to be the equivalent of billionaires but have slipped to being just millionaires.

He meets a young American woman on a class vacation trip to the Greek Isles. They kind of fall in love but she has some serious psychological problems. She had been in love with a childhood friend all her life, but he died. She's still in love with her dead friend and this creates psychological problems that neither one of them can deal with. She is a study in the kind of paralysis that can come from grief.

The American in Pakistan is portrayed as a stereotype. A big burly world-weary guy wearing a suit and obviously in some type of security or intelligence role because we learn from hints that he's carrying a weapon inside his jacket.

During the conversation we learn a bit about the local culture and what it's like to be served at a street café - the different teas, foods and drinks. We see how the plaza changes as the chaotic street traffic ends at sunset. The main street is closed off to vehicles and becomes a pedestrian-only venue decorated with multi-colored lights. (Something some US downtowns should try?)

We wonder how the American has the patience to listen to this day-long story. I don’t mean that comment to imply that this book is boring in any way – it’s reasonably fast-paced. We watch the American’s reactions which are sometimes disbelief, disgust and revulsion.

As the young man is mentored in his job by a vice president, we get a case study of how the old boy network still works. His boss, also a Princeton grad, sees in the Pakistani man a hunger that he also had as a youth. The vice president came from lower class origins. “I never let on that I felt like I didn't belong to this world. Just like you.” And we learn there are other reasons he might be interested in the young man.

Then we learn how the main character's world changed after 9/11 and what led to his return to Pakistan.

The author (b. 1971) is well known for two other books I have read and reviewed – Exit West and Moth Smoke. The author lived a life like his protagonist. He lived in the US for several years as a child while his father attended Stanford. He returned for Princeton and Harvard and became a high-powered financial consultant, later moving to London where he became a British citizen. Now he and his family divide their time among London, Lahore and New York.

Geography note: With more than 11 million people, Lahore, where the story is set, is the second-largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi with 15 million. Islamabad, with about 1 million, is the capital.

Top photo of street scene is Lahore from r/AccidentalRenaissance on reddit.com
Map from Infoplease.com (Lahore is in east central, adjacent to India)
Lahore from pinterest.com
The author from thebookerprizes.com

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Nine Reasons To Read This One:

Because it’s short, yet evocative: a relief at a time when authors needlessly pile on the pages.

Because it’s hard enough to sustain a distinctive voice for a dramatic monologue in a poem (ask Robert Browning), leave alone an entire novel.

Because the voice is just right – formal without being sombre; precise without being stiff.

Because, unlike in John Updike’s Terrorist, you can empathise with and understand Changez, the fundamentalist.

Because of the delicious ironies, among them the fact that Changez works in a US firm that evaluates companies ripe for takeover; virtually the first piece of advice he receives is to stick to the fundamentals.

Because Changez’s disillusionment comes about in a nuanced, progressive manner and as such is completely believable.

Because there’s ample evidence of the author’s craft, especially in Changez’s many responses and descriptions while narrating his tale in a Lahore bazaar.

Because yet another example of such craft is that Changez’s ill-fated relationship with the USA is matched by his ill-fated relationship with Erica – without being heavy-handed about it.

Because in less than 200 pages, Hamid creates both a compelling protagonist and a compelling argument.

One of the most contentiously rated novels I've seen here

I'd had the book for 2-3 years probably, when, a couple months ago, I determined that I needed to make shelf space. This was one of a few books I decided to get rid of, even though it was unread. But it was so short, and I had looked forward to reading it ...

So I put it beside books I was reading and would soon read, then picked it up a few nights ago when I was tired but didn't feel like going to bed, and started reading. I’m very glad I did.

As soon as I'd read a couple pages I was interested. Can't recall reading a story in this narrative style. It's all in the first person, the words are being spoken by the narrator, Changez, to an American man, never named, whose apparently only occasional words are never explicitly heard, simply acknowledged in the narration by something like,

Oh, but you mustn't assume that I believed that, sir. or What's that you say, sir? You'd like something to drink? How would some nice tea do for you? Fine, I'd like a cup too, I'll order for us.

The entire almost one-sided conversation takes place over the course of several hours, from mid-afternoon perhaps to late at night. In it, the Pakistani narrator tells a select story of his life, his experiences going to Princeton, being hired by a small, select financial company in Manhattan, and meeting and falling for a young American woman named Erica.

The story of Changez and Erica is very strange, doubly strange when folded into this sort of narrative style. I think I'll remember it for quite a while.

but all those contentious reviews ...

I'm sure the low ratings of many have nothing to do with the literary merits of the novel. They have to do with the attitudes toward America that Changez slowly reveals throughout his telling, attitudes which in fact he only becomes aware of as certain incidents occur which evoke (as he tells it) surprise on his own part, when he realizes how he has reacted. I don't believe I'll go into any specifics about this, but I found his recounting of these attitudes very believable from the point of view of a person from that part of the world.

The story is something of a mystery – a mystery with at least two, perhaps more, ominous threads which slowly are revealed and slowly grow darker.

You may dislike the narrator (I didn’t), but that doesn’t seem to be the point anyway, to me. And, even if the author himself is taken as having the same attitudes as the narrator does, well, to dislike the story because one dislikes the author doesn’t seem to be a way of judging literature either.

And it is literature, not a political essay. In many ways, for many reasons, an unforgettable novel.

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This is a lovely, short, very easy-to-read post 9/11 book.

The structure of this is tale is Changez telling his personal story to a burly American visitor (probably a spook of some sort) to his country, in his function as a guide to Pakistan. The tone was very reminiscent of Rudyard Kipling, at least as far as I recall from my reading of Kipling many years back. Think The Man Who Would Be King. This makes sense given the subject matter of the book, colonialism versus the third world.

Changez, born to fading gentry in Pakistan, has attended Princeton on scholarship, gotten a lucrative job with a top tier financial company, and is in love with beautiful, blond upper-class Yank. Life is good. But when 9/11 happens he discovers that he feels some satisfaction in the great giant being taken down a notch. In the newly paranoid USA, his background marks him as a threat to many and life changes.

Essentially what we have here is a foreigner (Changez) falling in love with America (get it? amERICA), but his amERICA is too damaged by the premature loss of her boyfriend to cancer at age 22 (Read Vietnam or whatever other fall one might choose) to cope. The result of this is that amERICA suffers from extreme nostalgia and becomes incapable of truly embracing Changez (subtle).

Erica’s father irks him with presumptions about corruption in Pakistan. He sees a “typically American undercurrent of condescension” (p 55) American indifference to third world concerns is noted repeatedly here. It is no secret that the USA is notoriously unempathetic to the concerns of others since the Marshall Plan.

Fundamentals here are the tools taught him in his finance career (efficiency). Fundamentals are implied for other things, knowing who you are, what your place is in the world. There are, surprisingly, no overt connections made to religious fundamentalism. Presumably one of the author’s points is that the values held high in the west (efficiency uber alles) are just as unfeeling and extreme as those of the religious nuts.

I did not take this as a personal tale. It is a metaphoric one. I mean the main character has but a single name, Changez. For that alone, how could the book be anything other than metaphorical? So I was not troubled by the contradictions in the character. For example, Changez feels an affinity with the jeepney driver in the Philippines, yet the choices he makes are all to strive within the western world. He manages to get a scholarship to attend Princeton, but feels it necessary to hide his relative poverty. What? Are there no other scholarship kids at Princeton? He is elitist in his orientation, wanting to hang with the rich kids, wanting to work for the heavy hitter financial company, even after it becomes clear to him that the work will cost people their livelihoods, wanting to be with the crazy girl when it is clear that she is over the edge. It is not America that rejects the foreigner here, but the foreigner who rejects America. So it is not a personal tale. It is a metaphoric one. It would have been better had the walking symbols here been made more reasonable, had their desires and impulses been a little more grounded in flesh and blood reality.

You’re not a better man than I am, Gunga Din.

=============================EXTRA STUFF

Hamid's personal, FB, twitter pages

An eerie, quietly powerful story. The structure is simple enough--- a monologue. A cafe in Lahore, and a young Pakistani is explaining to a silent American how he came to be an enemy of America. There's menace there--- something is about to happen, and soon. You're not told why the American is there, or what he does, or quite why young Changez is telling him these things. But there it is. This voice--- educated, articulate, tinged with hostility and faux-bonhomie and self-pity ---speaking into the dusk, ordering more tea, and...waiting.

There are reviewers at GoodReads who just didn't get the narrator, who just disliked him out of hand. After all, they said--- full scholarship to Princeton, near-six-figure Wall Street job at 22, beautiful American girlfriend: how dare he dislike America? I just kept reading and thinking about Dostoyevsky's "Devils" or Conrad's "Under Western Eyes". Changez would be...exactly...the sort to end up a terrorist of some kind. From a family with old name and status but no money. Educated someplace where you're almost never aware of being different, where suddenly money is an issue, where status and formalized deference don't soften the edges of not having money. A job with travel to places where you're aware of being American in the eyes of locals, but being a mere foreigner to American customs officials. Being smitten with a beautiful, gentle Upper East Side girl who slips away from you. Changez turns on the TV in a Manila hotel suite and sees the Towers burning on 11 September 2001 and finds himself suddenly, unexpectedly...smiling. However not? You can see Changez being as surprised as any of his American employers and friends at just how much resentment is there. Just the sort of person who could be recruited, who'd find himself seeking out places where he could open up his anger.

There's no grand political justification here, no sudden acceptance of Islam or jihad. Changez is secular, and his disdain for Americans isn't religious as much it is based on tribe and class and a sense of falling between identities. Mohsin Hamid gives his narrator a disturbing and quiet sense of slowly growing bitterness and isolation, as well as a slowly growing desperation about finding an identity. I am a Kurtz, he tells his nameless American listener, waiting for my Marlowe.

"The Reluctant Fundamentalist" is an unexpected find, and a story with a whole cast of ghosts and ideas happening just behind the main narrative. Very much worth reading, and a book where you'll be uncovering layers in Changez's monologue for a long time.

Generally,I'm a bit wary of Booker nominees,but in this case they got it right.It would have been a lot better if this book had actually won the Booker Prize,instead of merely being shortlisted.

However,the nomination generated quite a buzz,and introduced me to Mohsin Hamid.And oh boy,his first two books were very impressive.

I read it in one sitting,a short and very interesting book,which held my interest from the very first page to the last.It explores a young Pakistani man's drift into extremism,after he has spent a good part of his life studying and working in the US.

There is one thing though,the protagonist Changez,doesn't really appear the type to become a fundamentalist,so suddenly,as 9/11 happens.He has a good job and is well settled in the US.

However,the book reminded me of the real life case of Faisal Shehzad,a Pakistani man who was arrested in the US in 2010 for trying to blow something up.But Faisal Shehzad was struggling with his job and had already become radicalized.

With this book,Mohsin Hamid took a gamble.It could easily have flopped,given the sensitivity of the subject and the anti Muslim feeling in the West,following 9/11 and the actions of the hijackers.Instead,it became a bestseller.

It is a fascinating book,one which also depicts the dilemmas of those caught between two worlds,the East and the West.They don't quite fit in either world.

It is just too bad that after this book,the quality of Mohsin Hamid's writing went downhill,as far as I am concerned.

“When my turn came, I said I hoped one day to be the dictator of an Islamic republic with nuclear capability; the others appeared shocked, and I was forced to explain that I had been joking.”

It explores, but only manages to scratch the surface, the question of religious fundamentalism amongst contemporary Muslim youth. No, it doesn't explore it, but makes a joke out of it, through an artificially constructed dilemma of one Changez, a Pakistani expat in the United States, who has turned to "fundamentalism" after the history-making day of nine-eleven.

Location: Lahore, the famous Food Street in Old city. The Reluctant Fundamentalist dines with an anonymous person about whom the only information we get is his nationality: he's an American man. How and why he's here we don't get to find out. The American seems like a phantasmal installation - a dummy of sorts - to lend our Reluctant Fundamentalist an ear.

The narrative is almost entirely made up of a monologue; the reader is not allowed to hear the reactions of the American stranger. Changez speaks continuously as he recounts his experiences of student life in the US. Through this unimpressive frame story, as though a flippant Conrad gone berserk, we enter the main story.

Changez has a common migrant story. He goes to study at Princeton (yes it is always Princeton or Harvard or Oxford or Cambridge - it seems fictional characters don't go to medium-tier universities but that's a non-sequitur!), lands in a lucrative finance job (again, it's either finance and engineering or taxis and toilets, but that's a non-sequitur too!); he's doing well in every way but loses his intellectual and emotional moorings when the planes strike the Twin Towers on that fateful, ridiculous morning.

The ensuing American invasions unhinge Changez. He begins to doubt himself (he just starts doubting, without going through a process of introspection which, included, would have lent some credibility to the narrative), his loyalties change, his outlook on life undergoes a drastic no-angled turn, and he finds himself questioning his life in the United States. This break is symbolically represented by Changez's relationship with an American girl 'Erica', who is actually 'America' - once his beloved, now an undesired castaway. They have one good sex, a mutual org*sm, and then they go separate ways.

It is not so much a tale of a truly reluctant fundamentalist than a person torn between what he sees as two mutually exclusive sets of loyalties. Changez suffers from an identity crisis and religious fundamentalism only makes up a silly excuse. There's nothing in his new outlook that confirms his born-again religiosity. He drinks, gambles, fornicates with his girlfriend, and doesn’t seem to have a moral issue with his lifestyle as one might expect of an Islamic fundamentalist who rejects liberal lifestyles. His opposition to American warmongering is political not religious. He talks about “our Asia” instead of “our Ummah” or the global Muslim community. This gives us room for interpretation but we do get the message don't we...

All in all, it's a fast read, enjoyable for its humour, but nothing much apart from that, and it doesn't require of you to think much before you have finished reading the slender novella. Mohsin Hamid wrote it before 9/11 but when it happened, edited it to make it relevant, sold millions of copies and hurray, made a fortune! But if a work of fiction depends so much on day-to-day history, it simply means that it's destined to last as long as the hype lasts.

April 2015

An Open Letter to America

which unfortunately I read late, around 5 years late. Why unfortunate? B’coz I might have liked it or probably loved it since I was a naive reader back then i.e I was into Sheldons and Archers and closer home Bhagats *blushes*. Anyway, I was well aware when this book hit the literary world and took it by storm. A dashing title, a Pakistani author, a reluctant subject, a movie in the making by Mira Nair and that’s precisely the reason I wanted to read the book before watching the movie , so bought a copy and was yayyyy...finally! Great read it’s gonna be!!

1st page: ok.

2nd page: yeah okk.

3rd page: Ahan! I know where you are heading.

50th page: err..no, I don’t know where you are heading, but I sense a twist just around the corner.

100th page: A love story..,girl’s lover dead...can’t forget him...a clinic...I once had a girl...Norwegian wood…Yes! Yes!...No! OK.

183rd page: just few more lines and then contact Agent J a.k.a. Will Smith and request for the memory eraser toy and move on to your next Murakami read.

And Nooo!! (Kindly excuse the superlatives) I didn’t hate this book but hated the fact as to why I wasn’t able to appreciate it in any way possible. It made me uncomfortable throughout rather than excited and the most irritating part is that you are compelled to read it till the end in the hope of getting hold of the whole idea behind this book. At the end, the author hurled a very smart curve ball towards his readers, leaving most of us in dilemmas, some on the side of Changez (the protagonist), some on the side of Mr. America (envying that delectable Lahori food he had) and some wishing to watch the re-run of 2011 epic cricket world cup semi-final between India and Pakistan and marveling at its brilliance and that moment when..Aargh! I never knew writing the review would be a similar experience like that of reading this book..distracting!!

This is the second book I read by a Pakistani author, first being My Feudal Lord by Tehmina Durrani, which I judged on the basis of its subject and not on writing style and since I read it around 6 years ago, all I could recall was that it was simple but affected me enough to evoke emotions of empathy which might not hold true at present having read many great books and becoming more aware and objective about the world around me since then so it might not feature in the league of extra ordinary but it definitely left an impression which reluctant fundamentalist, as I highly doubt would be able to achieve. As the story was unfolding it became, hardly audible and incredibly distant. And the writing style!! I wish the narration was in one to one style as it started bothering me after few chapters, may be the execution was unconvincing or plain dull *oxymoron*.

This book has some great ideas but somehow fell short of the elements that would have made it a great page turner. It felt too safe and too confined for my taste. Islamic Fundamentalism is a sensitive subject and needs to be handled carefully without actually conveying any negative message or an ambiguous one but what Mohsin Hamid as seemed, resisted from going out of his comfort zone and stating everything at a superficial level without actually diving deep.

The only thing I found acceptable was his realization of being victimized or prone to victimization because “I am a Muslim”, but like I stated that I read it a bit late so in today’s time this has become a bit redundant and again not helping in scoring brownie points for Mr. Hamid.

Those stars are simply because as a writer he definitely has potential provided he let himself go of all the inhibitions if he’s having any, from his literary genes.

“Have you heard of the janissaries?”... “They were Christian boys,” he explained, “captured by the Ottomans and trained to be soldiers in a Muslim army, at that time the greatest army in the world. They were ferocious and utterly loyal: they had fought to erase their own civilizations, so they had nothing else to turn to.”... “The janissaries were always taken in childhood. It would have been far more difficult to devote themselves to their adopted empire, you see, if they had memories they could not forget.”
I spent that night considering what I had become. There really could be no doubt: I was a modern-day janissary, a servant of the American empire at a time when it was invading a country with a kinship to mine and was perhaps even colluding to ensure that my own country faced the threat of war. Of course I was struggling! Of course I felt torn!

Mohsin Hamid here, gives an inside of the dilemma Muslims felt in post 9/11 America, which was everything but safe for them. He has written about the growing islamophobia, racism and prejudice that still reside there, with his own unique narrative style that captures his readers attention and compel them to read till they finish the book. Absolutely brilliant.

I devoured it....
A phenomenal surprise.
Very cleverly written...
Powerful, compelling, (layers of thought), unforgettable....
and absolutely brilliant!!!!!

“His tone [carried a] typically American undercurrent of condescension”

Initially, Changez embraced the quintessential capitalist American dream. A well-traveled, Princeton educated Muslim Pakistani expat, he had a high-powered, extremely well-paying job in the financial sector as a skilled business valuation analyst. He felt happy and comfortably ensconced in the almost unimaginable diversity of New York City. “I was, in four and a half years, never an American [but] I was immediately a New Yorker.” One would say he was on the fast track to power, wealth, and success. But as life unfolded, his love of an American woman failed to come to fruition and his vision of the achievement of his dreams soured. THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST is Changez’s first-person explanation to an American “tourist” in a Lahore cafe of his transition from that starry-eyed dreamer through disillusionment to disenchantment and into disappointment, dislike, and disgust. At the close of the narrative, it remains an open-ended question whether Changez has made a final transition from THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST into the realm of radicalized activist hatred.

As a Canadian reader who has on many occasions had cause to shake my head and roll my eyes at instances of American hubris, I found myself nodding in agreement with several examples of Changez’s assessment of that US smug self-satisfaction:

Of his classmates’ conduct on a trip to Greece and their attitude “to Greeks twice their age”, … “[I] found myself wondering by what quirk of human history my companions – many of whom I would have regarded as upstarts in my own country, so devoid of refinement were they – were in a position to conduct themselves in the world as though they were its ruling class.”

“Your country’s constant interference in the affairs of others

It was merely fortuitous coincidence that I read THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST on the eve of Trump’s departure from the White House and Biden’s inauguration, that I wrote this review on the very morning that I read of the announcement of Biden’s intention to reverse Trump’s Muslim travel ban on his first day in office. As the USA embarks on a two year window of opportunity to examine itself and to enact legislation and social change with the benefit of a Democrat president and majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, every American would do well to read THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST to give themselves a greater understanding of how some citizens of the world, who we might say are less than enamored of the USA’s attitude, view them.

From the very first page, Hamid’s choice of a monologue conversational style for the entire novel is absolutely enthralling and entirely convincing. I should also add that the open ending is worthy of the finest thriller. THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST finished by leaving me with a very upsetting knot in my stomach and questions that will stick with me for a very long time.

Paul Weiss

Absolutely terrific, can't believe I haven't read it before except it was published the year my daughter was born so that explains it.

A brilliant look at the feelings of a Pakistani immigrant who has the good life as a corporate analyst aka job destroyer rolling out for him in the USA, and then September 11th 2001 comes around. Fantastic delve into the complex emotions and feelings, mirrored by his relationship with an American woman so wrapped up in her own pain she doesn't see what she's doing to herself or people around her.

It's brutal and real and difficult and the way it's told is superb: the narrator telling his story to an unnamed American in Lahore as night falls. The creeping menace is spectacular.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid is a short-yet-thought-provoking read about the after-effects of 9/11. It is a first person narrative of a Pakistani Muslim residing in the States, and how his life gets tougher every passing day after the attack.

With a subtle and unique narration style, the book does not fail to impress. The change in the attitude of the protagonist from a moderate Muslim to a hard-core one in the wake of the terrorist attack due to transformations in his personal and professional life is subtly depicted in the story.

If you are aware about the awfully difficult language used in the books nominated for Booker, you'll be pleased to know that it is not the case with this book - which is a welcome move more on the Booker's part than on that of the author's, if you know what I mean.

Verdict: Read it for the narration style.

I FINISHED A BOOK!!

if school books even count.

anyway, i looooved the beginning of this book, and then began to hate it once it used its sole female character as a manic pixie dream girl-esque object for the forwarding of the protagonist's character arc, and then continued to hate it (with an ever-growing hatred) once that only became truer.

tragic, because the ending of this was so cool. if only all that sexism didn't get in the way.

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pre-review

of COURSE when I FINALLY have a singular SECOND to read I have to spend it on BOOKS I am ASSIGNED for SCHOOL

Whilst delivering one man's story, Mohsin Hamid introduces the reader to an entire nation's. This clever allegory defies traditional structure, with its unique narrative style, and transcends emotion, by seeming to produce a severe lack of it. And this frank display of truth invites the reader to query their own.

This is a story everyone feels they have read, in one format or another, but Hamid tears down the boundaries of this known narrative to deliver a truth everyone needs to read.

Sjajan... neobican... ima ono "nesto" specificno za autore poreklom iz Indije i Pakistana... sjednom finom notom humora meni veoma dragog... Prava je kupio jedan srpski izdavac, ali je zapao u teskoce i knjiga verovatno nece skoro biti objavljena na srpskom... Za sve one kojima se dopala knjiga Pitanja i odgovori Vikasa Svarupa (Laguna) ili Beli tigar (IPS)

Excuse me, sir, but may I be of assistance? Ah, I see I have alarmed you. Do not be frightened by my beard: I am a lover of America. I noticed that you were looking for something; more than looking, in fact you seemed to be on a mission, and since I am both a native of this city and a speaker of your language, I thought I might offer you my services.

So begins the The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid; a great opening paragraph which catches your eye and which in fact made me purchase this book. (Advice to all wannabe writers, including myself: write a great opening line. This is what sells books.) Unfortunately, what follows hardly measures up. In fact, Mr. Hamid lets the reader down with such a great thud that I am surprised there are no bruises to show for it!

The setting and style of the novel is – well – novel. An unidentified American has entered the district of Old Anarkali in Lahore. He is approached by Changez, the narrator and protagonist, with the above quoted line, and guided to a tea shop the “quality of whose tea is unparalleled”. There, he unburdens his heart to his apprehensive guest. He is a Princeton graduate, and has spent four-and-a-half years in America. The reason why he has come back to Pakistan is the subject of the story.

Changez narrates his tale to his invisible (in literary terms!) guest, and we listen. We can imagine ourselves in the place of the American, or as an eavesdropper on their conversation. Throughout the narration, the listener’s reactions are remarked upon by the teller; which is all we get to see of him. This shadow listener, in facts, works well as a literary device and also serves to enhance a feeling of creeping menace slowly slipping into the barmy Lahore evening.

Well, in my opinion, the positives end there.

Changez is explaining why he became disillusioned with America and became the “reluctant fundamentalist” of the title: however, his story doesn’t hold water. He is the blue-eyed boy from Princeton, top-ranked among his young fellow executives in the valuation firm of Underwood Samson and the personal favourite of his mentor Jim. He is in love with Erica, a beautiful American girl. He is slated to go far in his profession. The good ol’ American (expat) dream…

Well, with 9/11, his world comes crashing down…

…now, if you are waiting for the story of the poor Muslim boy persecuted by Big Bad Uncle Sam, well, think again. Nothing of the sort happens.

Our hero is in Manila on a mission when the Twin Towers are brought down. He watches it on TV and says “my initial reaction was to be remarkably pleased” because “someone had so visibly brought America to her knees”! Well, as a reader, I lost whatever sympathy I had with Changez then and there. I mean, here’s a guy who has studied in America, is working in America, planning to marry an American girl and settle down in America – and he’s pleased at a wanton act of terrorism on America? He is not a reluctant fundamentalist but a closet terrorist!

As the story moves on, there are no instances of any discrimination against Changez, other than an airport search and a threatening encounter with a semi-crazed man in a car park. However, his sense of alienation grows and he starts considering himself as an outsider. But what really distresses Changez is not the status of Muslims in America post-9/11. It is the slow slide into madness of his love Erica, and the perceived threat to Pakistan from India.

Erica is a girl who lives partially in her mind with her long-dead boyfriend Chris. She is so disturbed that she can have sex with Changez only by imagining him to be Chris. Although initially she encourages him, she slowly moves away from Changez into an institution; then moves away from life totally, disappearing without a trace. This tale of Erica is Norwegian Wood with all the magic removed – a pastiche. We should be feeling for our poor protagonist, but I was only feeling bored.

The second reason for Changez’s self-destruction, the perceived war with India, is even sillier. This is the period after the attacks on the Indian Parliament in December 2001 by Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaishe-e-Mohammed activists which lead to massing of troops by both countries at the border. Changez’s latent patriotism comes to fore and he flies to Pakistan against the better counsel of his parents. The thing is, while we can understand his need to flaunt his Pakistani-ness, and his displeasure with India, his anger against America is ludicrous. He becomes disillusioned with America for remaining neutral and not chastising India!

Whatever the case, from here onwards Changez self-destucts. He is sent on an important mission to Chile by Jim as a chance to rejuvenate his career, disregarding opposition from the company vice-president who accompanies him. However, Changez does such a shoddy job on purpose and refuses to continue so that the company has no option other than to fire him. The ostensible reason for this change is his realization that he is the modern-day equivalent of a Janissary (Christian youths stolen away by Turks at the time of the Ottoman Empire and used as warriors), fighting for the evil American empire. The reason I can see is that the guy is seriously screwed up.

By now, we have reached the last twenty pages or so, and we see Changez racing into his fundamentalist career with gusto (although specifics, other than a speech, are missing). The narrative then suddenly slides into an ambiguous ending which is left open for reader interpretation. It all depends on whether we accept Changez as a reliable or unreliable narrator. Obviously, it is meant to be explosive – but to me, it felt like a damp squib. I couldn’t care less.

Tailpiece:

In the West today (in India, too) Islamophobia is a serious concern. Singling out of Muslims as potential terrorists everywhere has done untold harm to religious harmony, and has resulted in many moderate Muslims embracing hardcore concepts. Many of them are reluctant fundamentalists – Mohsin Hamid has tackled a real problem.

Unfortunately, Changez cannot represent them.

The review is up on my

At first, I thought "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" was a book about a radicalized extremest. That, if anything, reflects my own cultural expectations and prejudices as a American. And just one of the ways that Hamid navigates ambiguity to manipulate his reader's emotions while making them think.

Hamid's protagonist Changez is far from a terrorist. And the titular fundamentalism has zero to do with religion. Instead, it refers to Changez's Yale-educated role as a Wall Street valuation analyst. Where they focus on "fundamentals" as they lob off jobs from companies.

For the most part, Changez is an extremely likable fellow. Despite his education and the prestige of his career, he's lonely as any Pakistani immigrant in New York. In fact, he may even more-isolated and lonely than a poor immigrant cab driver. Sure he has access to the halls of power, and an education they could only dream of, yet he is cut-off from the Pakistani community in New York, making him easy to empathize with. As does the way he comports himself with his mentally ill, entitled novelist girlfriend is remarkable, touching an believable. Based on the sweet, subtle, sensitive way he relates to her, I would be glad were he to date my daughter, sister or niece.

Another illustration of Changez's basic wholesomeness is his growing disillusion with his job. He knows his actions will cause people to lose their jobs. While his professional detachment sort of insulates him -- he can tell himself "I'm only doing my job" -- he knows that his firm get people with real responsibilities fired. People with families.

And yet, this otherwise decent, hard-working character cannot help smiling when he sees the Twin Towers collapse. He sees it as payback for the hubris he sees all around him as his Wall Street colleagues seem to lord-over the less well-off. And when the "lower orders" are in another country, like the Philippines, their behavior grows worse.

And yet, he too clings to the American prestige. He too likes the gold-medal treatment. Despite his empathizing with his Emerging-World brothers and sisters, he enjoys the being more powerful than them.

Ambiguous.

And the way Hamid paints Changez's growing dissatisfaction with America is believable and spot on. It's not as if he backs the terrorists. He is shocked at their actions. But he is also shocked by the US's killing of tens of thousands in Afghanistan to repay 3 thousand lives lost on 9/11. And he cringes as the US populous targets his native Pakistan through the US ally India.

It seems so unfair, so bullying. How could the rich, powerful American state act so callously? What's more, a trained business mind, he is appalled that so much of the money goes to a handful of unnamed business interests.

While I may not agree 100% with Changez's assessment, I can seen how a Pakistani immigrant could feel that way. Especially when he is nearly set-upon by anti-Islamic bullies.

I would be remiss to omit the "frame" -- which is ingenious. Changez tells his story to an unnamed US male who looks military -- crew cut, athletic, well traveled -- in a suit and carrying a satellite phone and something under his coat. We never learn if it's a gun or a wallet.

Hamid is crafty like that. Through Changez's reactions to him, we see how a rational, educated man who likes Americans, but sees through their bluster, can come to also fear Americans. He's a Pakistani Muslim, while they're Anglo Christians, like the military-looking stranger he's speaking with. So much runs through the narrator's mind that shows how suspicion warps your perspective, and how distrust and war drives the distrust level to eleven.

For instance, is the American CIA come to take Changez away to a detention center? Or just a tourist or business traveler wanting companionship? We never know.

But we also see the distrust the American displays towards Pakistan's Muslims. For instance, he is obsessed by a waiter who seems to be paying inordinate attention to him. Is the guy a terrorist, a thief, or looking to murder him? And when Changez leaves the American at his hotel's gate, that waiter is jogging after them. Is the waiter running with something they left behind? Or trying to catch a car? Or is he a radical Islamic terrorist about to assassinate the American stranger?

I like that Hamid does not answer these questions. He's content with asking them to reveal the biases we all bring to these encounters.

Ambiguous.

That said, I have seldom seen this much socio-political depth packed into so few pages. I have heard the movie is not so good, which does not surprise me. Because this is a case where the book's style, structure and format match the material perfectly. A Hollywood treatment could only damage it.

Further, I appreciate the negative reactions of some readers based on a single datapoint: his Changez's smirking at 9/11. That is a doozie. But this book is not easy. If you are a died-in-the-wool Conservative, you'll be put on your heels by the sentiment that America is not always right. A died-in-the-wool Liberal will be appalled by his embrace, in the end, of a traditional Pakistan -- complete with sexism, veiled women and all. And my guess is that nearly all Americans will cringe when he smirks as the Towers collapse.

But that is the point. The truth is not easy. That Hamid could force me look past my identification with the American tribe is remarkable.

I still like, and at times dislike, Changez. But I understand him.

Because of the captivating style and material, I am giving this five-stars. I have never read anything like it.

Supremely interesting and well told, but I'll have to think a lot more about the ending. Still, I'm very glad I read it.

The story starts off with a bearded man named Changez sharing his experiences of living in America to a stranger, coincidentally an American citizen, whom he met at a road side cafe in Lahore while having tea with him.

Changez, in his head believes that he belongs to an affluent family, yet frequently talks about the decaying conditions of his family house in Lahore. Went on a scholarship to Princeton University, got into a high end financial corporation and met Erica, the girl of his dreams. But everything changed after 9/11, as he was subjugated to racial prejudices because of his identify.

However, with time things started to settle for him, his job was more than rewarding, Erica on the other hand was in turmoil because she couldn’t get over her past, which eventually led to her disappearance. Changez came back to Pakistan and started teaching, but couldn’t forget Erica ever.

It seems that the writer uses Erica as a metaphor for AmERICA. After 9/11 USA lost its charm for many young Pakistanis because of racial subjugation and discrimination. Their dreams were scattered and America, the haven for dreamers was lost in prejudices and still haven’t been able to recover from it fully.

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Cosa potrebbe provare un brillante giovane islamico laureato in una prestigiosa università americana e impiegato in un’altrettanto prestigiosa azienda di New York?
Quella estraneità verso la società che sta dall’altra parte della sua porzione di globo natale, quella diffidenza di fondo soffocata continua a languere vivacchiando silente e addormentata, ma forse attende solo le condizioni propizie per risvegliarsi?

E quando queste condizioni si verificano, e vedi due grattacieli sbriciolarsi come biscotti di pasta sablée portandosi via tra le macerie più di 2600 cittadini americani, e quando il tuo paese, il Pakistan, rischia di entrare in conflitto con un’India confinate e scalpitante con il benestare silenzioso dagli stati Uniti tuoi alleati storici, allora tu, giovane pakistano laureato a Princeton a pieni voti, il prodotto di una università americana, che guadagni un lucroso salario americano, innamorato di una donna americana, tu uomo dalla pelle brunita, gli occhi scuri e penetranti e la barba chissà perché lasciata libera di crescere, come a riprendersi una identità perduta, cominci a farti delle domande, a sentire il richiamo della foresta, quella asiatica.

Avevi già avuto un’avvisaglia a Manila, dove la tua azienda ti inviò in missione, uno dei suoi uomini migliori, ma là ti sentisti più vicino al conducente del taxi che ti portava al lussuoso hotel piuttosto che al collega biondo seduto al tuo fianco, squalo venuto a giudicare con un sofisticato file di excel se un’azienda è ancora degna di stare sul mercato.
Cominciavi a sentire di stare recitando una parte, di non appartenere ancora a questo mondo, ma nemmeno più a quell’altro che avevi lasciato.
Un déraciné, specie arborea trapiantata e che cresce storta.

E spiega quando:

Vidi crollare prima una e poi l’altra delle torri gemelle del World Trade Center di New York. E allora sorrisi. Sí, per quanto possa apparire deprecabile, la mia prima reazione fu di notevole compiacimento

Quel moto di gioia subdolo e demoniaco per quel capolavoro di organizzazione terroristica donde ti venne?
Da quale recesso recondito della tua mente orientale?
Tu stesso, ragazzo pakistano, te ne stupisti e ti facesti ribrezzo e ti stigmatizzasti da solo, e tentasti di estirpare quella parte di te che ancora non eri riuscito ad addomesticare ai valori dell’occidente.
E in un attimo, per quel paese terrorizzato colpito al cuore, regredito in un giorno di settembre del 2011 indietro di decenni, i tuoi pieni voti e la tua riconosciuta determinazione professionale non sarebbero contati più.
Di te sarebbe rimasto a fuoco il colore della pelle catalizzatore di miriadi di sospetti indifferenziati, e la cosmopolita New York si sarebbe mostrata con il nuovo volto, il volto dell’ostilità.

Il fondamentalista riluttante è un ottimo libro ben narrato, ben scritto, efficace nel descrivere una realtà che fa pensare, ho apprezzato meno la storia d’amore che nell’economia del racconto ci sta perché rende più tormentato ed elastico il legame di attrazione e repulsione che il fondamentalista riluttante intrattiene con l’America, ma avrei preferito una relazione sentimentale meno improbabile, più normale, che non avrebbe sacrificato una oncia alla bellezza di un romanzo che ritengo del tutto consigliabile.

The inability to let go of an idealized past is a recurring theme in Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Just in the same manner that America erroneously idealizes a pre-September Eleven Utopia in the United States, Erica idealizes her relationship with her deceased boyfriend Chris; likewise, just how America is unable to let go of the past by engaging in blind vengeful tactics against the Middle East, so is Erica unable to let go of her past relationship with Chris and so she recedes into insanity and an eventual unexplained disappearance from the planet. To further the continuance of the romantic motif of holding on to memories, Changez, too, suffers from the irrational inability to let go, for even after he returns to Pakistan he cannot form a new relationship because he cannot let go of Erica’s memory.

Erica is one of the most important characters in The Reluctant Fundamentalist because she is the corporeal representation of everything Changez dreams of in America. Erica is the typical wealthy and outgoing American girl, but she differs from other young women in her class in that she has suffered the tragedy of losing the love of her life to unconquerable and merciless Death. Though she displays more interest in Changez than any of the other young men with who she surrounds herself in her social circle, the stubborn adherence to old memories with her true but deceased love prevent her from moving on and accepting a healthy relationship with Changez. Changez asserts that, “Perhaps theirs was a past all the more potent for its being imaginary. I did not know whether I believed in the truth of their love; it was, after all, a religion that would not accept me as a convert” (114). Erica loved Chris to such extent that even so much time after his unfortunate death, she is still unable to exonerate herself of the deep wound this inflicted on her; consequently, she unable to allow Changez in her life.

There is enough textual evidence to suggest that Mohsin Hamid probably created the character of Erica as an allegorical representation for America. America, too, is wealthy and outgoing in world affairs, and just like Erica, suffered a tragedy from which it does not yet seem to fully recover. “It seemed to me that America, too,” Changez explains, “was increasingly giving itself over to a dangerous nostalgia at the time” (115). Indeed, following the tragic events of September 11th, the people of the United States were also trapped in the country’s own idealized version of its past and struggling with its own nostalgia, thus also unable to accept Changez as an American convert, to use the narrator’s terms. The unfortunate chap suffers so much discrimination following the events of September 11, that following Erica’s consistent rejections and her eventual disappearance, and Changez subsequent failure at Underwood Samson, he was left with no choice but to return to his country Pakistan.

Even as he establishes himself as a professor in Pakistan, Changez will never be the same after having had known Erica and having had lived in America for approximately five years. He, too, has been afflicted by the nostalgia epidemic and seems to display no interest in moving on emotionally. “My brother married last April,” says Changez, “and my mother began to suggest… that I do the same; she believed I was in the grip of an unhealthy melancholy and that a family of my own was the surest way for me to rediscover satisfaction in my life” (175). Though this is all sensible advice, Changez is really in the grip of the same type of nostalgia that caused Erica’s and America’s downfall: “I had not told her about Erica, and I found it became progressively more difficult to contemplate doing so; our relationship could now thrive only in my head, and to discuss it with a mother intent—on challenging it with reality might do it irreparable harm” (176). What Chris was to Erica is what Erica has become to Changez—a fantasy, a dream of an idealized past that can vanish when faced with the facts of reality. Changez, too, is afraid of letting go.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a lesson in civility. Its pacing is practiced and hospitable. There is ceremony and sublimation. Such is the story of Changez, a Pakistani Princeton graduate and one-time corporate star in NYC, told on a wonderful day in Lahore. His shadowy interlocutor is an American of unknown intentions. The novel offers a modest immigrant's tale. While it is clear there is extreme emotion just under the surface, the notion of any real threat remains uncertain. It is this menace which propels the narrative, enhances our suspicions, allows to err on the side of a hasty credible threat.

The novel is masterful as an illumination, as an idyll and as a pointing a finger at our own fears.

Anche a rischio di apparire (e spesso di esserlo davvero) inconcludente, io mi rifiuto di cercare per fenomeni complessi soluzioni semplici: il più delle volte non esistono ( la geometria degli spazi proiettivi è un'eccezione, ma riguarda un vampo abbastanza limitato) e chi le sostiene nella maggior parte dei casi o è in malafede o è intellettualmente limitato.
Il punto è che in problemi gravi del vivere civile come quello dell' scontro tra est ed ovest (che si parli di immigrazione, di religione o di geopolitica) sono le soluzioni semplici quelle che piacciono, perchè danno una risposta facile e rassicurante a questioni che ci colpiscono allo stomaco. Solo che io non mi rassegno alle ruspe di Salvini o alle bombe del nuovo sceriffone McCain solo perchè la gente dà loro retta: anche se è sconfortante constatare come tutti accechino se stessi in modo da non cogliere il raggiro pur di essere rassicurati.
La sola possibile risposta sta in libri come questo; che gettano la luce sul mondo intermedio, sul meato in cui le due civiltà si compenetrano: quel luogo dove gli slogan e gli stereotipi vengono smentiti,quel luogo della mente di cui gente come Salvini farebbe volentieri a meno.
E d'altronde come si potrebbe inquadrare in uno schema elementare uno scrittore come Mohsin Hamid, pakistano e musulmano però laureato a Princeton ad alla Harvard Law School, negli States più profondi? Non è possibile. Ed allora proprio dalle sue storie e dai suoi bellissimi personaggi si può partire per cercare una maggiore complesstà nell'indagine del rapporto tra Medio Oriente ed Occidente, quel rapporto che ha fatto la storia del mondo di questi ultimi quindici anni.
Changez, il protagonista de "Il fondamentalista riluttante", è un uomo che ha vissuto tutta la sua vita nella stessa confusa linea di mezzo tra i due mondi. Membro della classe borghese pakistana che è andata via via impoverendosi, ha trovato miracolosamente le risorse necessarie per trasferirsi negli Stati Uniti per sviluppare e sfruttare a fondo il suo formidabile talento di analista finanziario, finendo per trovarsi proprio nella punta del corno di quel toro in corsa che era la finanza americana degli anni Novanta.
Se non fosse per la carnagione e per l'accento, Changez sarebbe indistinguibile da un qualsiasi soldato di quell'armata invincibile di finanzieri che stava portando l'America alla conquista del mondo con l'arma del denaro: elegante, sottile, spietato, infaticabile nel perseguire il successo della società per la quale lavora ed il successo del suo rapporto con la giovane Erica, rampollo della migliore società WASP di Manhattan.
Sarà l'11 Settembre a fare chiarezza: nella politica degli USA che saranno costretti a gettare la maschera pacifista per sostituire il dominio commerciale con il dominio militare, e nella vita di Changez che a poco a poco osservando il vero volto degli Stati Uniti conservatori vedrà crollare i suoi valori e la sua vita precedente fino a diventare, Giannizzero al contrario del 2012, un "fondamentalista riluttante": come scoprirà, forse a sue spese, l'audace impresario americano WASP a cui stava raccontando la sua vita nella periferia di Lahore.
Il libro forse non è scritto benissimo, e le pagine introspettive che descrivono il rapporto con Erica sono abbastanza pesanti e scontate; ma per chi cerca nuovi concetti da aggiungere per arricchire la propria idea su quello che sta accadendo nel mondo è prezioso. Scopriamo infatti che la figura del Giannizzero non è scomparsa, anzi ritorna nei nostri giorni: il più crudele fondamentalista in uno scontro fra culture è sempre colui che ha visto le sue radici stroncate per vedersi trascinare dall'altra parte della barricata.
Cosi come gli ottomani nell'età moderna rapivano i bambini cristiani per addestrare le loro più feroci truppe d'elite, allo stesso modo la finanza americana spesso è guidata nella sua conquista da brillantissimi manager musulmani; allo stesso modo non dobbiamo stupirci di incontrare giovani europei (anche italiani) tra le fila dei terroristi islamici più inferociti. E' l'odio di chi non può perdonare al suo mondo di averlo lasciato senza radici, e Changez lo ha sperimentato in entrambe le direzioni.
Nessuno mette in discussione la colpa storica di Bin Laden per quello che è successo l'11 Settembre e negli anni successivi, ma dopo aver letto questo libro si comincia a capire anche la colpa americana. Perchè sia pur nascosta sotto forma di strategia commerciale, l' aggressività americana veniva vista all'est come un attacco ed una minaccia per l'esistenza stessa di una cultura millenaria; e di questo nessuno dei tori di Manhattan si è dato pena negli anni novanta. Ma, ad un certo punto, per usare le parole di Changez: ad un certo punto,con qualunque mezzo, quell'America andava comunque fermata.
Infine, qundo cerchiamo di farci un'idea di un mondo e di un sanguinoso e drammatico scontro che influenza la vita di milioni di uomini, sarebbe meglio non crearsi una immagine da bar. Il modo di pensare, le aspirazioni, l'idea della vita di quegli uomini sono diversi dai nostri ed è sempre uno sbaglio giustapporre alla foto di una donna in burkha o di un Muezzin (o perchè no, di un terrorista dell'Isis) i pensieri e le azioni di un occidentale nei loro panni.
E comunque e sempre, quando qualcuno pensa di risolvere il problema dell'immigrazione con una frase od una ruspa, diffidare. Quasi sicuramente o ci sta ingannando o è semplicemente un idiota.

I loved Moth Smoke but Hamid falls woefully short of the poetry and inventiveness of his first novel in this hackneyed, boring and utterly forgettable novelette that fails both as a polemical rant against American foreign policy (Rage Against The Machine does a better job and is more believable) and on a more basic human level as a love story. Changez is a Pakistani man with Western yearnings and trappings, educated at Princeton, and employed by a top American valuation firm when 9/11 occurs. The events immediately following 9/11 coupled with his doomed relationship with a depressive and suicidal American girl (oh, the humanity!) spark a crisis of faith in the system he is a part of and in the way American foreign policy runs roughshod over the rest of the world (Boo-f*ckin-hoo, cry me a river, etc etc) causing him to give up his western life style, sport a beard in protest regardless of the "looks" he might get walking down the streets of manhattan, and, later on to become a professor in a Pakistani university spewing prosaic anti-american rhetoric. In other words a TRUE revolutionary.

The interests of Hamid's much denounced muslim nation (he identifies with Afghanistan as much as he does with Pakistan) would be much better served had he produced a more self critical novel that would cause the average pakistani or generic third world muslim to introspect and self reflect about why they are such non-entities on the world stage (other than BLAME AMERICA FIRST) and perhaps suggest some way they might be able to pull themselves up by the bootstrap and get out from under the heel of the IMF, the World Bank and the instruments of America's considerable imperial military’s debt economic might. This novel perfectly symbolizes the disease the muslim world suffers from; it's symptoms are apparent in the mindless violence/terrorism we see ever so often erupting from these cultural backwaters but its root cause lies in denial, lack of introspection and refusal to take responsibility for "our" condition.

In the end Changez has only himself to blame for his downfall, just like the muslims he identifies with.

This is one of those books that I found very readable but which, on thinking about it later, feels less subtle and insightful than I wanted.

The artifice of the 200 page monologue can get a bit tiresome in places, and the too-obvious symbolism of names - Changez embedding the concept of change with perhaps a hint of Genghis?; (Am)Erica caught up in her nostalgia for a lost past leading to a self-harm that also affects the people around her - can make the story and characters a bit simplistic. Changez is hugely naive for a young man studying at Princeton in the late 1990s, surely? and the 'twist' of what 'fundamentalism' means within the context of the story a bit tricksy as it refers to his career at a high-flying valuation firm where a focus on the fundamentals is the rallying cry of these young high-achievers.

Despite these issues, this is a compelling quick read, easily gulped down in a single sitting. There was only one point where Hamid, for me, said something via Changez that was more nuanced: when he commented on how American exceptionalism can itself be a form of self-harm:

As a society, you were unwilling to reflect upon the shared pain that united you with those who attacked you. You retreated into myths of your own difference, assumptions of your own superiority. And you acted out these beliefs on the stage of the world, so that the entire planet was rocked by the repercussions of your tantrums

So my second Hamid (after Exit West), and my second 3-star - I think his narrative tricksiness is not quite to my taste.